


Hit Close to the Bone

by perniciousLizard



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Established Grillby/Sans, Hurt/Comfort, Injury Recovery, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-07-11 07:23:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7035712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perniciousLizard/pseuds/perniciousLizard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sans ends up right on the edge of falling down, but there are too many people who love him to let himself tip over.  Recovery is a long process, and he is not the only one who needs it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hit Close to the Bone

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: **Grillby X Sans (and/or Papyrus & Sans); Sans is badly injured (as in “down to a decimal point” kind of injured) and has to deal with overly-protective loved ones.**
> 
> Thank you [lovethebadguy](http://lovethebadguy.tumblr.com/), for the prompt!

A bad cold could kill Sans.  If he got caught in a fight that dragged on, or if he got hit by multiple attacks at once, or if something just hit when he wasn’t paying attention, that would be it for him. That was just how it was, and he’d lived with it for a very long time.  

Maybe it was shock that made him think “welp, about time” when the blow hit.  His HP ticked down, a countdown to a bad joke.  4, 3, 2, 1, aaaand–

“SANS!”

It was too hard of a hit.   _sorry, bro._

“SANS, YOU HAVE TO HOLD ON!”

_had a good thing going there, for a while._

“PLEASE!”

1, and–

There were bony arms around him.

and–

_i can’t_

_sorry, i_

and–

“SANS! I BELIEVE IN YOU!  I LOVE YOU!”  

HP: 1, .01, .001, .0000000000000001—-

Sans’ hp stretched towards zero, the damage too much to just will away.  But, with his brother's arms around him, shouting at him not to give up–

It refused.  

Everything went black, his HP stabilizing at an almost imperceptibly low number.

–

“I don’t know, Papyrus.  There’s a chance, but…I don’t want you to get your hopes up too high.”  

Sans didn’t recognize the voice.  He struggled to open his eyes and say something, but he couldn’t even twitch a finger bone.  

“THERE IS NO GOOD REASON TO GIVE UP ON HOPE!  WHAT IF HE HEARD YOU SAY THAT?”

“I am almost positive your brother is…sleeping too deeply to hear anything we say.”  

“ALMOST POSITIVE?  WELL, I AM FULLY POSITIVE HE IS GOING TO MAKE A FULL RECOVERY!  HE JUST NEEDS ENCOURAGEMENT.  FROM EVERYONE!”  

Sans listened to his brother give the possible-doctor a pep talk about the importance of never giving up until sound started to become muffled and strange, and he fell asleep.  

–

He could tell he was in a bed, there was a machine beeping nearby, and someone was holding his hand.  They weren’t speaking.  

It was familiar.  Grillby?  Now that he was paying attention, he could hear fire gently crackling right by his skull.  

Sans tried to say something.  His whole body felt heavy, and moving his mouth to speak was too much work.  His hand twitched, and as he fell asleep the room felt warmer and he heard:

“Sans?”

–

“So, uh, when the line m-moves, it should show that he’s awake and if it moves a lot, it shows that he’s–”

“MOVING LIKE IT IS DOING RIGHT NOW?”

“W-what? Oh!  Look at that!  Good morning, Sans!  I wonder if he understands me?”

“I AM SURE HE DOES!  SANS!  YOU HAVE BEEN DOING A VERY GOOD JOB LATELY, BUT YOU NEED TO KEEP IT UP FOR A LITTLE LONGER!”  

“…w-well, it looks like maybe he’s registering your voice, at least?  He recognizes you!  That’s good news!  Sans, your base HP got, um, kind of really low from the injury, so you don’t have enough energy to do…anything?  But it’s going up!  Your doctor predicts that you will be able to look around and… maybe talk a little in, um…a few days.  Papyrus, I don’t think that was very encouraging.”

“OF COURSE IT WAS!  SANS, ALL YOU CAN DO IS GO UP FROM HERE!  GOING DOWN IS NOT AN OPTION!  DO YOU UNDERSTAND-– OH LOOK AT THE LINE!  IT IS MOVING ALL OVER THE PLACE!”

“His soul resonates a lot when he hears you, Papyrus.  I think maybe the best thing you can do is keep talking to him?  I’m going to record the results for today and see if I can find any patterns so maybe we can speed things up a little?  I mean, Sans, go at your own pace, b-but everyone would like to talk to you again very soon, okay?”

“IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW LONG IT TAKES, BUT SOONER WOULD BE A LOT BETTER, SANS.”  

It took too much effort to listen.

“WHY IS IT GOING DOWN?”

“I think he’s falling asleep?”

“ENJOY YOUR NAP BUT WAKE UP STRONGER, BROTHER!”  

–

They must have told Grillby he was supposed to talk, because when Sans woke up again, he heard him very quietly reading pages out of a cookbook.  

Grillby was holding his hand, loosely, and Sans could almost picture him. There’d be a chair right next to the bed, and he would be sitting straight up in it.  He was imagining Grillby in what he wore to work, but it was likely he was dressed more casually.  You didn’t dress up to go to the…hospital?  Was that where Sans was?

God, he’d put real effort into reassuring Grillby that his low HP wasn’t a big deal.  Kind’ve messed that one up, by almost dying.  

Grillby went quiet.  His hand tightened around Sans’.  Sans heard a small “thump,” like he had set the book down.

“Sans?” Grillby asked.  "Are you awake?  I think that’s what that means."  

The room was warmer, and Sans was picturing Grillby leaning in closer to look at his face.  

"…do you understand me?"  Sans felt a hand on his ribs.  "…your brother said to be…encouraging?"  He stopped to consider it, gently touching Sans’ face.  "…please, come back to us?"  He sighed.  

Sans wanted to tell him that it was all right.  He didn’t have to try that hard to be encouraging.  Papyrus had that covered for twenty people.

He felt Grillby kiss him on the forehead.  Sans pried open his eyelids, just for a second, to try and look at him.  The light was searingly bright and the effort was too much.

"Sans? Are you–”

He lost consciousness.  

–

“…coming back, I think?  Sans?”  

He could only really picture Alphys in a lab coat, even though he’d seen her in plenty of different outfits over the years.  

“CONGRATULATIONS, BROTHER!  GRILLBY SAYS YOU OPENED YOUR EYES!”  

“I almost feel like w-we’re throwing a party in here, there are s-so many people.  He has an entire half of a health point!”  

There were a lot of people?  Sans carefully cracked his eyes open a little, not wanting to blind himself again.  

That sure was a blank ceiling.  Papyrus leaned over him.

“BROTHER!” Tears spilled out of his eye sockets and trailed down his face.  

Sans wasn’t sure trying to talk wouldn’t just knock him out again, but seeing his brother cry over him was like a punch to the rib cage and he wanted it to stop.  "uh," he said.  Ok, great.  Now he was tired and he hadn’t come up with a good joke or anything to say. He’d woken up and heard Toriel telling him some great coma puns just a little while ago, but he couldn’t remember a single one of them.  

Papyrus pulled him into a hug.

"Papyrus, the wires!” He heard Alphys hurry over.

Now Sans could see her, over Papyrus’ shoulder, and everyone else.  Grillby was there, making him wish he had on sunglasses so he could actually focus on him.  Undyne was there, too, probably to lug stuff for Alphys or help out Papyrus.  Toriel and the kid weren’t around, but she’d been there so often telling him terrible jokes she probably needed a break.  There were a couple people he didn’t recognize – doctors, maybe? – and some of the monsters from the bar.  

.5 HP.  Base HP, he was assuming, since with so many doctors around they could’ve cured him higher otherwise.  No wonder it was such a struggle to keep his eyes open.  

He wasn’t the only one who was tired.  He had only seen Papyrus for a second before the hug, but the shadows under his eyesockets had grown huge, like they were trying to take over his entire skull.  When he could finally focus on Grillby, he seemed small and slumped.  Nothing like what Sans had been picturing.  He had on an ugly sweater that Sans had given him as a joke.  

“hey guys,” he said.  That try went a little better.  

Papyrus finally pulled away.  He held Sans upright, gripping his shoulders, and looked him over.  He sniffed, loudly.  

“bro.  a guy fell down a flight of stairs, and someone runs over and is like ‘did you miss a step’ and he says 'nope.  i hit every one of them.’”  That described how he felt, pretty well.  

“SANS!”

Making that joke took away the last of Sans’ energy, but it was worth it. His head slumped against Papyrus’ chest.  He wished Tori had been there to hear it. 

–

They propped him up so he could look around and gave him a remote for the TV.  Toriel smuggled in some of his joke props since Papyrus wasn’t going to get them for him.  Sans wasn’t sure Papyrus had actually been back to the house since the close call.  

Frisk brought him some of his sock collection and they made sock puppets of each other and their friends.  They mostly used them to make fun of each other.  

Undyne was around.  Sans realized that she was hanging around making sure Papyrus’ single-mindedness didn’t get him in trouble.  She brought takeout and tried to trick Papyrus into sleeping.  When she and Sans were alone for a few minutes, she yelled at him for being irresponsible and then gave him a hug.  Sans awkwardly patted her shoulder and they both felt weird about it.  

He mostly slept.  It was always an odd switch when he was sick or hurt, because everyone flipped from telling him off for napping to getting annoyed if he stayed up for long enough to watch an entire movie.  He wanted to go home so he could relax in his own bed with all his own stuff nearby, but they were keeping him there until he hit at least a single HP.  

Toriel wasn’t the only smuggler.  Grillby would bring a bag of fries or a burger with him, and Sans would have no idea how he actually got it in there without anyone noticing.  The smell would hit him in the nose hole as soon as Grillby walked in the building.  

Grillby would still read to him if he was sleeping since he had no idea what to do or say, otherwise.  He had some of Sans’ books, so it was jokes and physics.  Sans would tell him to keep going when he woke up, because he liked to hear Grillby drastically mispronounce some of the physics terms.  It added a new level of enjoyment to hearing a bunch of stuff he already knew.  

If Sans was awake and they were alone, Grillby would get on the bed and Sans would put his head on his shoulder and they’d flip through channels and complain about whatever was on.  Grillby would fall asleep right there and act a little embarrassed when Papyrus inevitably burst in on them like that.  

There wasn’t a part of the whole thing that wasn’t embarrassing for Sans.   They left Alphys’ soul monitor attached to him for a while, and then they’d have something to say when his visible reaction was different than what was on the screen.  He eventually actually had to ask to get it taken off, since it seemed like a bad idea to just yank it free himself.  

Toriel made him a pie when he finally hit one HP.  The joke she’d painstakingly written out in icing on top of it was so morbid Sans’ sides ached from laughing.  He loved her.  She knew everything was pretty serious, but got that he hated dwelling on it.  Papyrus came in the room to see what he was laughing about and they had to quickly “accidentally” mess up the icing before he read the words.

–

The first time Sans stood up, Papyrus sat on the bed and let Sans lean on him.  When Sans got too bored, Papyrus would find a wheelchair and roll him around.  

Every night for the three weeks it took Sans to go from .5 HP to 1, if Sans wasn’t already sleeping, Papyrus would read kids’ books to him.  He wished that would knock Papyrus out, but he was stubborn in his resistance to sleep.  

Papyrus watched Sans’ face carefully at the start of the story, but got caught up in telling it by the end.  He acted out the characters. His voices tended to sound the same, but his passion carried the show.  

“SANS, THAT STORY SHOULD HAVE LULLED YOU INTO A PEACEFUL HEALING REST,” Papyrus complained.  "WHY ARE YOU REFUSING TO SLEEP?  IT IS YOUR FAVORITE THING TO DO.“  

"uh, been sleeping all day.  read me another one.”  

While Papyrus was looking through the stack of books, considering his options, Sans felt guilt creep up his spine.  

“so. uh.  you know i’m going to be ok, right, paps?”

Papyrus scoffed.  "OF COURSE YOU ARE.“

"so you can go ahead and get a nap in.  i’ll still be here when you get up.”  

That hit something.  Papyrus’ hand tightened on one of the books.  "I KNOW THAT!  WHAT ABOUT THIS ONE, SANS?“

"i’m ok with whatever.”  

“IF YOU DON’T WANT ME TO READ ANYTHING, THEN YOU SHOULD JUST SAY SO!”

“uh.” Sans rubbed his skull. “well, i heard the one, so maybe i’m as ready for bed as i’ll get.”

Papyrus stared.  "I–I SHOULD NOT HAVE YELLED AT YOU FOR THIS, IF YOU ARE TIRED!  I WILL MAKE THE BEST CHOICE ANYONE COULD MAKE FOR A BEDTIME STORY, AND THEN I WILL READ YOU TO SLEEP.“  

"i think i can handle you yelling at me,” Sans said.  "not made of glass.“  

"IT WOULD BE AMAZING IF THAT WERE TRUE!” Papyrus said.  

“sorry,” Sans said.  He supposed he deserved that, after almost dying from a hit that most other monsters could’ve shrugged off.  

“NO!”

“i’m…not sorry?  not sure what you want from me, here, bro.  i think you need to take a break.”

“STOP TALKING ABOUT BREAKING!”

Sans decided that quitting talking in general was the best idea, considering Papyrus’ erratic mood.  His brother was shaking.  Of the two of them, Papyrus looked more like he was breaking – about to have a nervous break, actually.  

Papyrus waited for him to say something, his hand clutching one of the children’s books.  

He couldn’t deal with the look on his brother’s face.  Sans gave up on not saying anything.  "hey, bring that over here.  i’ll read you that one.“  He patted the bed next to him.  

For a second, Sans thought Papyrus was going to strangle him, but he just walked over and sat down.  Sans took the book out of Papyrus’ hand and flipped it open.  His brother was on the verge of tears, but Sans had no idea what to do about that, so he just read the story.  

After a few minutes, Papyrus’ eyelids started drooping.  Oh.

_Papyrus always gets kind of cranky without a bedtime story._

Papyrus kept fighting it.  He sat up straight, refused to lay down, and jerked awake every few seconds as he started to nod off.  But the simple repetition of a habit ended up doing him in.  Sans started the story immediately over when he hit the end, and Papyrus didn’t even notice.  He was out.  

"sorry, bro,” Sans said.  "messed up pretty bad, this time, huh.“

Papyrus snored.  

–

Sans was watching the TV muted when Papyrus started to flail around.  

"bro. hey.  bro.  calm down.”

Papyrus gasped and sat up, almost whacking Sans in the face.  He looked at Sans, haunted, tears tracking down from his eye sockets.  

Sans was pulled into a hug before he registered what was happening. “oof.”

Papyrus pressed his face against Sans’ shoulder and whimpered, like a child.

“bad dream, huh.”  Sans’ arms were pinned to his sides, but he wiggled one arm free enough to pat Papyrus on the back.  

He wailed, muffled, against Sans’ t-shirt.  

“i’m still here.”  

Papyrus was quiet for a little while.  He was coming back to himself after whatever nightmare had woken him up.  "KEEP BEING HERE.“

"planning on it.”

“I REALIZE THAT YOU LOOK UP TO YOUR COOL BROTHER, PAPYRUS, AND MAYBE HE ISN’T UP TO HIS USUAL STANDARDS, BUT–”

“nah. you’re having a hard time.  there’s not really anything you can do to change my mind about you being the best.  i mean, you saved my life.  you’re a real hero.”

“I DID NOT GET TO YOU IN TIME.  YOU SAVED YOURSELF.”  Papyrus released his death grip on Sans’ arms.  "YOU HAD THE WILL TO SURVIVE, SO YOU SURVIVED!“  

"see, how i remember it is: i was about to hit zero and then someone rattled my bones and told me to get my act together.  he was pretty cool.  maybe even the coolest.”

“IF THAT IS SUPPOSED TO MAKE ME FEEL BETTER, IT IS NOT GOING TO WORK, SANS!”  Papyrus leaned back and glared at him.  "IF THAT IS TRUE, THEN WHAT IF I HADN’T BEEN THERE AT ALL?“  

He would have just died from his injuries, even if he’d kept himself from hitting zero.  "guess i woulda been boned.”

“AUGH!  WHY WOULD YOU EVER MAKE THAT JOKE?  WHY WOULD YOU–”  He stopped, abruptly.  "YOU ARE TRYING TO DISTRACT ME.“  

"did it work?”

“YES!  DON’T DO IT AGAIN.”  

“ok.”

Papyrus sighed.  

“look, a couple months, everything will be back to normal.  let’s just watch some tv.”

“I DON’T WANT TO WATCH TELEVISION.”

“i’ll read you something else.”

“NO.”

“go to sleep, papyrus.”  

He shook his head.  "FINE. I WILL WATCH TELEVISION WITH YOU.“  

Sans nodded off watching a late-night infomercial.  He was almost positive Papyrus didn’t sleep at all.

–

Moving back to the house was exhausting.  Watching everyone else do all the work was pretty tiring.  Papyrus was in charge of making sure Sans kept his balance on the short walks he took to the car and then from the car to the house.  Alphys drove them.  

Grillby was already at the house, waiting for everyone.  The kitchen table was set and lunch was ready.  Sans looked around while he was eating, noticing how clean everything looked.  There should have been dust, since Papyrus had not been around.  Grillby moved around like he knew the place.

"…I was thinking of staying the night," Grillby said, hovering by the door after Alphys said her goodbyes.  

"not like i mind,” Sans said.  

“…maybe a few nights,” he admitted.

“sure?”

“…I brought a suitcase.”  

“ok.”

Grillby went to go get it.  Sans thought maybe Grillby figured they’d need help around the house with them both there and Sans not doing anything.  The joke was on Grillby, though, because Sans never did anything.  

Grillby had gotten in Sans’ room at some point and made the bed.  It wasn’t really built for two people, even if one of them was notably compact.  

He used Grillby’s chest as a pillow.  Sans was exhausted, and Grillby was in one of his quieter moods, so neither of them said much. Papyrus came in to check on Sans.

"THAT IS NOT A HEALTHY SLEEPING POSITION FOR YOUR RECOVERY,” Papyrus said.  Sans had expected him or Grillby to be embarrassed, but they both took it in stride.  

“sure it is,” Sans said.  

Papyrus got out his phone and snapped a picture.  

“…why did you just do that?” Sans asked.  

“I HAVE DECIDED TO START A COMMEMORATIVE PHOTO ALBUM THAT I WILL SHARE AT YOUR WEDDING,” Papyrus explained.  

“what.”

“…” Grillby’s face started to turn blue.  

“I ALSO DID IT TO EMBARRASS YOU!  NYEH-HEH-HEH!  ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL JAPE FROM THE GREAT PAPYRUS!  THERE IS NOTHING LOW ABOUT HIS HIGH-JINKS!”

“good one,” Sans said, mortified.  

“THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING!  I AM ONLY SORRY I DID NOT START TAKING MY PHOTOGRAPHY SERIOUSLY MONTHS AGO.”

“…please knock before you come in when I am here,” Grillby said.  "…and please do not include me in this."

"you’re not getting out of this if i’m not.”

“OF COURSE I WILL KNOCK!  I AM A PINNACLE OF POLITENESS.  A GENTLESKELETON OF THE HIGHEST ORDER.”  

One of Grillby’s arms was pinned down by Sans, so he only had one free hand to cover his face with.  

Papyrus snapped another picture before he left.

“…does your brother dislike me?”

“nope. course now we can never get married since he’s serious about making that album.”  

“…true.”

“at least pretend to be broken hearted, grillbz.”

“…you need to wait until I don’t remember what your bedroom looked like before I cleaned it.”

“i had a good thing going in here.”

There was a loud knock at the door.  

“think he might do that all night?”

“…come in, Papyrus.”  

Papyrus burst in.  "I DID NOT WAKE YOU, CORRECT?“  

"nah.  we were wide awake the two minutes you were gone.”

The third time Papyrus knocked, it sunk in that he wasn’t going to stop. They told him to just leave the door open.  Sans thought that Papyrus needed some kind of reassurance, which Sans understood better than he was going to admit, ever.  He remembered waking up in Snowdin and for no immediately clear reason needing to check if Papyrus was alive.  

“sorry,” Sans said.  "he’s kind of having a hard time, right now.“ He could hear Papyrus in the kitchen, well out of hearing range.  

"… _he_ is?"

"yeah. sure, this wasn’t great for me, but i’ve mostly been asleep.  so it’s just pretty standard except with some pain to keep it from getting boring.”  

“Is it a lot of pain?” Grillby asked.  He tried to sit up, but Sans wasn’t moving his head.  

“nah.”  When that didn’t seem to reassure him, he said, “everything’s just being lazy and taking its time to heal.”  

Grillby nodded.  "…where?"

He was a little sore pretty much everywhere.  His skull was a constant dull ache that occasionally turned sharp if there was a sudden bright light or a loud noise.  "uh.  why?”

“…maybe I can help?”

He urged Sans to sit up, and then pressed heat down his spine.  

“yeah, ok, that’s not bad,” Sans said.  It wasn’t going to make him heal any faster, but it was pretty relaxing.  Grillby kept it up until Sans fell asleep.  

–

Sans woke up hungry in the middle of the night.  Grillby was a barely person-shaped fire in the bed next to him, so Sans decided to get up and feed himself.  He was going to miss being able to just send people to get food for him.  

He kept his hand on the wall.  The dizzy spells were mostly gone, but sometimes his leg bones decided to take a vacation and drag the rest of him along with them.  He made it to the kitchen without incident.

Papyrus was sitting at the table, paging through a car magazine.  He looked up when Sans came in.  He started to say something, probably to berate Sans for walking around without asking anyone for help, but he seemed to change his mind.  

Sans shuffled over to the counter and started opening cabinets.  

“SOME PERSON WHO I WILL NOT NAME SNUCK SEVERAL BAGS OF CHISPS IN THE REFRIGERATOR WHILE I WAS NOT AROUND TO STOP THEM,” Papyrus said, conversationally.  "…IF YOU ARE FEELING STEADY ENOUGH TO WALK AROUND ON YOUR OWN, THAT IS VERY GOOD NEWS." 

"yeah. made it all twenty steps to the kitchen without falling down,” Sans said.

Papyrus winced at “falling down,” but didn’t mention it.  He flipped to another page of his magazine, like he was actually paying attention to it.  

Sans cleared off half a bag of chips and put the rest back in the fridge.  “hey.  i’ll read you an article out of that magazine or something.”

“I AM NOT ACTUALLY AVOIDING SLEEP ON PURPOSE AT THIS POINT,” Papyrus said.

“oh.  you want me to read you something anyway?”

Papyrus sighed.  "YES."  

He held onto Sans’ arm until they got to his bedroom.  Sans flipped to an article comparing new car models and started reading.  

The habit of it put Papyrus to sleep, again, but it didn’t look restful. Sans stayed in the room, reading the rest of the magazine, until Papyrus started awake.  It was a less dramatic wake up than last time, but he managed to dump all his blankets on the floor.  

"still here,” Sans said.  

Papyrus stared at him, quiet, his shaking settling down.  

“ok?”

“I AM NOT ENTIRELY SURE WHY THIS SEEMS TO BE GETTING WORSE,” Papyrus said.  "IT WAS NOT THIS BAD EVEN RIGHT AFTER IT HAPPENED." 

"no, see, it makes sense when you think about it.  there was too much going on, so you put off dealing with it.  not on purpose.  that’s how it works.  but now i’m okay so,” he shrugged.  

“YOU ARE NOT REALLY OKAY YET.”  

“fine.  but i’m not in any danger, right?”

Papyrus nodded.  "I DON’T THINK I WANT TO TRY SLEEPING ANYMORE TONIGHT."  

"k.”

Papyrus stood up, collecting his blankets off the floor and neatly folding them on the end.  "YOU, HOWEVER, ARE GOING BACK TO BED.“ When everything was back in order, he helped Sans to his feet and took him back to his own room.

Grillby had spread out over most of the bed while they were gone.  

"YOUR BED IS ON FIRE.  THAT SEEMS UNSAFE,” Papyrus whispered, rubbing his head.  "BUT...IT IS JUST GRILLBY."  

"yeah. it’s pretty cute, how he does that.”  

Papyrus looked at Sans, and then back at the bed.  "I DON’T THINK I UNDERSTAND ROMANCE.“  

"what. you don’t think he looks pretty hot?”

“I AM NOT GOING TO TAKE PART IN THIS CONVERSATION ANYMORE.”  

Sans tried to egg him on, but Papyrus meant it.  He was silently led over to the bed and pushed down onto it.  Sans grabbed the blanket Grillby had shoved to the end and tucked his boyfriend in.  He liked to do that when Grillby was deeply asleep, because he always woke up a little irritated to find a blanket covering him.  

“THAT SEEMS UNNECESSARY, BUT THIS IS NOT MY AREA OF EXPERTISE,” Papyrus whispered.  

“what if he gets cold?” Sans was snickering.  

Papyrus shook his head.  "GOOD NIGHT, BROTHER.“  

"night, bro.”  

–

The doorbell blared the barking dog version of Sans’ favorite gyftmas song, waking him from a dead sleep.  He had meant to change the song right after the holidays, but the longer he left it the more annoyed everyone got when they rang the bell, so there was really no incentive for him to bother.  

He felt around without looking, hoping to nudge Grillby into getting the door, but he was already gone.  The blanket Grillby left behind was a crumpled mess and it smelled like smoke and overly charred barbecue.

Sans covered his head with it in an ineffective attempt to block out any further doorbell rings.  The next sound he heard, though, was Toriel laughing loudly by the kitchen.  He shoved the blanket away and decided to get up.  

“Sans!” She hurried over to him and gave him a hug when she saw him coming out of his room.  "You look horrible and you smell even worse!“

"same to you, tori,” Sans said.  

“Thank you,” she said. They both laughed.  "Your hot boyfriend has taken over the kitchen, so I cannot make you anything.“

"you two should take it outside and fight over who gets to feed me.”

“Is this a fist-fight, or are we using fire magic, I wonder?”

“just do whatever feels right.”  

“What feels right is making you sit down before you fall over,” she decided.  She took him over to the couch and firmly set him down in it.  

Everyone kept pushing him around to get him to sit, like he was ever going to say no to resting.  "you’re supposed to be at work."

"Well,” she said.  "I wanted to see if you were settling back in, and if you needed any healing.“  

"you’re skipping work.  grillby’s skipping work for like three days.  even pap’s off.  i’m inspiring everyone to be lazy.”  He pretended to wipe away a tear.  "i’m touched."

Papyrus came into the living room and scanned it.  "UNDYNE IS NOT HERE YET?”

Oh, god.  How many people were coming over?  Sans appreciated Undyne looking out for Papyrus, he really did, but the next few hours were going to wear him out. “nope.”  

Grillby poked his head in from the kitchen.  "… _how_ many people am I cooking for?“    

"WHY ARE YOU COOKING FOR ANYONE?  YOU DO NOT LIVE HERE.  I AM AN EXCELLENT HOST, AND I SHOULD BE MAKING BREAKFAST,” Papyrus said.  

“…what is the number?” Grillby pressed.  "Oh.  Good morning, Sans."  

"hey, grillbz.”  

“I believe I was too loud, and woke him,” Toriel admitted.  

The doorbell rang.  Papyrus hurried over to open it before Undyne kicked it open.  While everyone was  distracted by the doorbell, Sans spared his bedroom a longing look.  

Alphys hurried in after Undyne, carrying a bag that looked like it had a few dozen DVDs in it.  

“SIX,” Papyrus said, to Grillby.  

Grillby nodded and disappeared into the kitchen again.  

“Sans!”  Alphys smiled at him.  "You look, uh, b-better!"  

"you can just say i look like crap,” Sans said.  

“…but better than you did!  Uh, anyway, I know it’s really boring when you’re recovering and you’ve watched everything you have a hundred times already, so!”  She dropped the bag of dvds on the coffee table.  

“thanks.”

A blanket fell into his lap and he looked up.  Papyrus was hovering over him.  

“AFTER YOU EAT, YOU ARE GOING BACK TO BED!  YOU ARE NOT READY FOR THIS MUCH EXCITEMENT.”  

“Eh, let him live a little,” Undyne said.  "Hey, is Grillby cooking?  I brought these."  She put a box of donuts on the table next to Alphys’ discs.  

"i do-nut think i’m going to say no to those,” Sans said.

Toriel laughed.  "It would be cruller to turn them down after she was so kind as to bring them!"  She got a good chuckle out of Sans, but the reaction of the rest of the room was mixed, at best.  

"nice. gonna be tough macaroon for all this food, though.”  

“I THINK GRILLBY WILL WANT HELP SETTING THE TABLE,” Papyrus said.

“Uh, yeah!  I’m going to go help out with that.”  Undyne rushed after Papyrus into the kitchen.  

Sans was already exhausted, but he made it halfway through breakfast before falling asleep.  He woke up back in his bedroom.  Grillby was carrying him.  His sleeves were rolled up and he smelled like breakfast.  

Grillby set Sans down on the bed with deliberate care.  

Sans yawned.  "hey.“  

Grillby nodded.  He picked up the blanket, gave it a skeptical look, and drew it up over Sans’ shoulder bones.  

"wouldn’t need it if you took a nap with me,” Sans said.  Not that he needed a blanket, anyway.  

“…later.” He leaned down and brushed a kiss against Sans’ forehead.  

Sans fell asleep again sure that when he woke up Grillby would be there.  He was right.  


End file.
